This course is compulsory on the MSc in Economics (2 Year Programme). This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

New course for the 2027/28 academic session.

How to apply: This course is intended for MSc Economics and MSc Economics (2 Year Programme), MPhil/PhD in Environmental Economics, and MRes/PhD in Accounting (Economics of Accounting Track) students. Any external student must have successfully completed EC400 in September and/or have approval of the Department of Economics.

Deadline for application: Please apply as soon as possible after the opening of course selection for all courses.

For queries contact: Econ.msc@lse.ac.uk

Pre-requisites:

Students must have completed EC400 before taking this course.

Additional requisites:

In exceptional circumstances, students may enrol in the course without EC400 provided they meet the necessary requirements and have received approval from the course conveners (at a face-to-face meeting), the MSc Economics Programme Director and their own Programme Director. Contact the Department of Economics for more information (econ.msc@lse.ac.uk) regarding entry to this course.

The aim of the course is to develop the tools used for economic analysis in research, government and business. The course deals with positive and normative problems. It aims to include recent developments while maintaining the analytical rigour needed to apply economic concepts to real-world problems. The course focuses on classical theories of decision making, market behaviour, and strategic interaction. We begin by presenting decision theoretic and behavioural foundations of choice with and without uncertainty. We then apply these insights to analyse behaviour of consumers and firms, and to model market interactions and the formation of prices in perfectly competitive markets. The final part of the course discusses game theoretic solution concepts, highlights the differences between these, and examines their applied relevance and relative strengths.

30 hours of lectures and 9 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Weekly problem sets and two marked assignments per term which will contribute to the coursework mark.

The course will draw on a variety of texts, the main ones being:

1.  J G Riley, Essential Microeconomics, Cambridge.
2. J R Green, A Mas-Colell & M D Whinston, Microeconomic Theory, Oxford.

More detailed readings will be given at the beginning of the course.
Some notes will be provided where textbook coverage is inadequate.

Exam (90%), duration: 120 minutes, reading time: 15 minutes in the January exam period.

Continuous assessment (10%).

This course is IRDAP-enabled, meaning that resit and deferred assessments will take place in August at the end of the academic year.